IRLF 


SB 


731 


FATHER 


ION  B 


GIFT    OF 
EVGENE  MEYER^R. 


TAD  AND    HIS   FATHER 


LINCOLN  AND  His  SON  "TAD" 

From  an  Engraving  after  the  Photograph  by  Brady 


TAD 
AND    HIS    FATHER 


BY 


F.    LAURISTON    BULLARD 


WITH  FRONTISPIECE 
AFTER  A  PHOTOGRAPH  BY  BRADY 


BOSTON 

LITTLE,  BROWN,  AND  COMPANY 
1915 


Copyright,  1915, 
BY  LITTLE,  BROWN,  AND  COMPANY. 


All  rights  reserved 


Published,  September,  1915 

'     /    ,,     ,     <•   /          i'  V-Jj.',-/ AC 

-.--.^^-'- 


Set  up  and  electrotyped  by  J.  S.  Gushing  Co.,  Norwood,  Mass. ,  U.S.A. 
Presswork  by  S.  J.  Parkhill  &  Co.,  Boston,  Mass.,  U.  S.A. 


Uo 

H.  D.  B. 

AND 

C.  E.   B. 


3428S3 


TAD  AND  HIS 
FATHER 

ON  a  day  in  the  late  summer  of  1862, 
the  President  of  the  United  States 
and  his  Cabinet  were  in  conference  in  a 
large  room  upon  the  second  floor  of  the 
White  House  in  Washington.  The  win 
dows  opened  to  the  southward,  and  the 
men  about  the  big  table,  strewn  with  pa 
pers  and  books,  sometimes  looked  rather 
wistfully  at  the  Potomac  River  and  the 
Virginia  hills  under  the  warm  sunshine 
without.  A  war  map,  hanging  from  a 
roller  in  one  corner  of  the  room,  was 
i 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

thickly  stuck  with  pins  of  various  sizes 
and  colors.  An  engraved  portrait  of 
Andrew  Jackson  looked  severely  down 
from  the  north  wall,  and  upon  the  man 
tel  there  stood  a  photograph  of  the  Eng 
lish  champion  of  the  American  Union, 
John  Bright. 

The  members  of  the  Cabinet  were 
engaged  in  a  discussion  of  the  military 
situation,  and  the  President  was  listen 
ing  quietly  to  their  informal  remarks. 
Their  tones  and  gestures  were  those  of 
men  sorely  disappointed  and  somewhat 
discouraged.  The  Confederates,  elated 
by  their  recent  successes,  were  carrying 
the  war  into  the  North,  declaring  their 
intention  to  release  Maryland  from  the 
"foreign  yoke." 

Intently    the    President     studied    the 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

faces  of  his  advisers.  There  sat  William 
Henry  Seward,  his  head,  with  its  beet 
ling  brows,  seeming  almost  too  heavy 
for  his  slender  neck  and  small  body. 
The  strong,  aquiline  nose  projected  over 
the  chest  in  a  manner  suggestive  of 
inquiry  and  combat.  The  eyes  were 
keen,  the  mouth  firm,  the  hair  white, 
with  glimpses  in  its  tangle  of  an  early 
tinge  of  red.  Subtle  and  witty  in  speech, 
the  Secretary  of  State  indulged  in  some 
characteristic  eccentricities  of  exaggera 
tion  which  brought  the  President  for 
ward  into  his  favorite  attitude  for  lis 
tening,  both  hands  clasping  his  left  knee, 
and  his  face  at  the  same  time  took  on  a 
look  of  worn  and  sad  attention. 

There  sat    Edwin  M.   Stanton,   burly 
and  aggressive,  a  natural  primal  force, 
3 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

devoid  of  tact,  scornful  of  ceremony, 
inexorable  as  fate,  well  hit  off  by  the 
name  of  the  god  of  war  which  the  Presi 
dent  playfully  applied  to  him.  A  mass 
of  black,  curling  hair  and  a  long  beard 
surrounded  the  leonine  head,  with  its 
sharp  eyes,  which  the  spectacles  could 
not  dim,  and  its  strong,  full  lips.  He 
gave  full  sway  to  his  brusque  intolerance 
of  forms  and  spoke  vehemently  and  with 
intense  earnestness  of  the  commanders 
in  the  field,  only  in  a  few  minutes  to 
veer  to  a  mood  as  warm  and  caressing 
as  the  September  sunshine. 

Salmon  P.  Chase  was  striding  about 
the  room,  an  impressive  figure,  two 
inches  more  than  six  feet  in  height. 
The  President's  eyes  turned  expectantly 
upon  him.  The  Secretary  of  the  Treas- 
4 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

ury  looked  the  Roman  statesman,  lack 
ing  only  the  toga  to  complete  the 
illusion.  His  domelike,  massive  head 
had  the  qualities  of  the  marble  bust 
which  later  was  to  be  considered  his 
most  perfect  likeness.  His  austere 
manner  and  the  cold  look  in  his  bluish- 
gray  eyes  seemed  almost  to  affect  the 
atmosphere  of  the  room. 

There  also  sat  Gideon  Welles,  big, 
quiet,  unassuming,  his  carefully  adjusted 
wig  giving  him  an  absurd  appearance 
which  accounted  for  the  popular  notion 
that  he  was  an  old  fogy ;  and  there, 
too,  were  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior, 
the  Attorney-general,  and  the  Post 
master-general. 

As  the  President  turned  from  speaker 
to  speaker,  his  hands  fondled  ever  more 
5 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

closely  his  left  knee,  and  the  lines  of 
weariness  seemed  to  deepen  upon  his 
countenance.  No  feature  of  the  face 
appeared  quite  to  harmonize  with  any 
other  feature.  The  eyes  looked  out  of 
deep  hollows,  as  if  they  were  placed  at 
the  bottom  of  a  ravine,  and  above  them 
was  a  high,  wide  forehead  with  a  brow 
jutting  outward  like  a  cliff.  The  bushy 
eyebrows  were  surrounded  by  delicately 
sensitive  muscles  and  mobile  wrinkles. 
The  flesh  was  dropping  away  from  the 
cheekbones,  making  them  look  sharp 
and  high.  The  ears  were  long  and  pro 
truding,  the  lower  jaw  strong  and  angu 
lar,  the  chin  high  and  solid.  The  small 
gray  eyes  dominated  the  face,  and  as 
the  President  uncoiled  his  limbs  and 
slowly  arose,  he  stretched  himself  up- 
6 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

ward,  with  that  vertical  elasticity  often 
noticed  in  him,  until  he  seemed  even 
more  than  six  feet  and  four  inches  in 
height.  The  eyes  kindled,  the  pre 
occupied  and  dreamy  look  disappeared, 
the  whole  aspect  became  animated,  and 
the  incongruous  features  were  fused  into 
a  harmony  which  no  merely  decorative 
face  ever  displays.  The  marks  of  his 
early  occupations  were  ineffaceably 
stamped  upon  Abraham  Lincoln,  but 
the  rail-splitter  did  not  try  to  cover 
over  what  he  had  been  by  what  he  had 
become. 

Perhaps  he  was  thinking  of  some  of 
the  outward  contrasts  between  himself 
and  the  other  members  of  the  group 
as  he  looked  upon  his  family  of  official 
advisers.  Here  was  his  chief  competi- 
7 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

tor  for  the  Presidency ;  there  was  an 
other  who  aspired  to  the  White  House 
and  whose  self-love  was  wounded  that 
one  so  inferior  in  the  lore  of  schools 
should  be  preferred  before  himself;  and 
the  Attorney-general  had  been  the  fa 
vorite  candidate  of  the  most  powerful 
newspaper  editor  of  the  North.  It  was 
a  strangely  mixed  council  of  state,  and 
it  required  rare  skill  to  hold  those  able 
and  powerful  men  together. 

With  a  quizzical  smile,  the  President 
glanced  again  at  Stanton,  and  said  : 

"Well,  Mars,  the  one  thing  that  seems 
to  be  sure  to  everybody  is  that  Mc- 
Clellan  must  keep  between  Lee  and 
Washington,  and  by  jings  - 

He  was  interrupted.  A  commotion 
was  heard  in  the  hall  outside,  and  blows 
8 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

resounded  upon  the  door.  There  were 
three  sharp  raps,  followed  by  two  slow 
thumps.  In  that  order  the  blows  were 
repeated  over  and  over. 

"Now  I  wonder  what  Tadpole  wants," 
said  the  President.  "You  see,  that's 
the  code  I  taught  him  yesterday,  three 
short  and  two  long,  this  way — "  and 
he  drummed  the  signal  upon  the  Cabinet 
table- 

"Tad  learned  it  over  in  the  telegraph 
office.  It's  a  sort  of  bribe  to  prevent 
him  breaking  in  on  us  without  warning. 
I've  got  to  let  him  in,  you  see,  because 
I  promised  never  to  go  back  on  the 
code." 

But  the  applicant  was  getting  im 
patient,  and  as  the  President  strode 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

towards  the  door,  with  the  Cabinet 
looking  on  curiously,  it  flew  open,  and 
in  rushed  a  small  boy,  who  plunged 
straight  into  his  father's  arms.  A  jolly, 
round-faced  lad  he  was,  cheeks  glowing, 
gray  eyes  flashing,  dark  hair  flying. 
Words  were  getting  into  each  other's 
way  as  they  tumbled  out  of  his  mouth, 
and  a  slight  defect  in  his  utterance 
made  it  still  harder  to  understand  him. 
In  his  excitement  he  seemed  to  explode 
just  like  a  bombshell,  and  he  shattered 
the  solemnity  of  the  Cabinet  meeting 
quite  as  effectually  as  a  shell  might 
have  done. 

The    President    sat    down    again    and 
took  the  boy  on  his  knees.     A  marvel 
lous  change  transformed  his  face.     The 
eyes   were    radiant,    the   wrinkles    were 
10 


TAD  AND  HIS  FATHER 

smoothed  out,  and  a  tender  smile  ef 
faced  every  vestige  of  melancholy.  It 
was  the  look  which  his  friends  always 
remembered  affectionately,  but  which 
no  artist  ever  was  able  to  record. 

"Now,  Tad,  tell  us  all  about  it," 
he  said,  speaking  very  slowly. 

Tad,  sizzling  with  excitement,  jerked 
out  his  story,  much  as  the  sparks  sputter 
from  a  burning  fuse. 

"Papa  day,  isn't  the  kitchen  ours, 
and  can't  I  feed  some  boys  if  I  want 
to  ?  There's  a  lot  of  'em  down-stairs, 
and  they're  all  my  friends,  and  two  of 
'em  have  got  a  papa  in  the  army.  We're 
all  hungry  as  bears,  and  I  won't  eat  if 
they  can't.  And  Peter  won't  let  us 
in,  and  mama  is  away,  and  isn't  it  our 
kitchen  ?  I  want  Peter  to  get  out  the 
ii 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

meat  and  pies  and  things  he  had  left 
yesterday,  and  he  called  my  friends 
street  boys,  too.  Can't  I  give  them 
some  dinner  ?  Because  it's  our  kitchen, 
isn't  it  ?  And  please  make  Peter  mind 


me." 


"How  many  boys  are  there,  Taddie  ?" 
"Why — ,  there's  the  two  soldier  boys, 
and  Perry  Kelly,  and  Bobby  Grover, 
and  two  more,  and  me ;  that  makes 
seven.  We're  terrible  hungry :  please, 
papa  day." 

The  President  looked  gravely  around 
upon  the  Cabinet  circle.  Chase,  stand 
ing  with  arms  folded,  seemed  to  contem 
plate  the  scene  as  from  some  Olympian 
height.  Stanton  was  in  a  melting  mood, 
and  smiles  softened  his  resolute  face. 
Seward,  whose  native  sense  of  humor 

12 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

had  been  deepened  by  his  intimate  as 
sociation  with  the  man  from  the  prairies, 
was  chuckling  aloud. 

"Seward,"  said  the  boy's  father,  "you 
must  advise  with  me.  This  is  a  case 
for  diplomacy." 

The  Secretary  moved  to  the  side  of 
the  President's  chair  and  patted  the 
boy  on  the  head. 

"Now,  Thomas,"  he  said,  "you  must 
remember  that  this  house  belongs  to 
the  nation,  and  that  the  kitchen  is 
loaned  for  your  use  just  for  a  few  years. 
And  Mr.  Chase  will  tell  you  how  expen 
sive  it  is  to  carry  on  this  war.  So  you 
must  be  careful  not  to  run  the  govern 
ment  into  debt.  However,  it  also  seems 
unwise  to  let  promising  young  citizens 
starve.  I  guess  the  Chief  Executive 
13 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

had  better  issue  an  order  on  the  Com 
missary  Department  of  the  Presidential 
Residence  for  rations  for  seven  boys." 

Tad  listened  quietly  to  this  speech, 
although  he  understood  it  only  in  part. 
But  the  twinkle  in  the  speaker's  eyes 
he  understood  very  well,  and  he  wriggled 
out  of  his  father's  arms,  rushed  to  the 
table,  and  came  back  with  pencil  and 
paper.  With  a  droll  smile,  the  President 
wrote  a  line  and  signed  it,  remarking 
that  he  "reckoned  Peter  would  come 
to  time  now."  This  "order"  he  de 
livered  into  the  brown  hands  of  the 
eager  boy. 

The  Secretary  of  War  stepped  pon 
derously  forward. 

"My  boy,"  he  said,  and  there  was  a 
mellow  quality  in  his  voice  which  some 


TAD  AND  HIS  FATHER 

members  of  the  Cabinet  did  not  remem 
ber  ever  to  have  perceived  before,  "you 
seem  to  care  a  great  deal  for  the  soldiers 
and  their  children.  Wouldn't  you  like 
to  be  a  soldier  yourself?" 

"Yes,  I  would,  but  I'm  only  a  boy." 

"  Well,"  continued  Stanton, "  perhaps 
I  can  fix  it  so  you  may  be  a  real  soldier 
and  a  boy  at  the  same  time.  Anyhow, 
I'm  going  to  make  you  a  lieutenant  of 
United  States  Volunteers.  Maybe  Peter 
will  obey  an  army  officer." 

"Do  you  mean  I'll  have  a  uniform, 
and  straps  on  my  shoulders,  and  brass 
buttons,  and  a  sword  ?" 

"Why --yes,  Tad,  I  think  you  would 
have  to  have  all  the  trappings  and  pomp 
of  your  rank.     And  if  you  could  muster 
a  company,  you  might  drill  your  men." 
15 


TAD  AND  HIS  FATHER 

"Papa  day,  papa  day,  you  hear  that  ?" 
cried  the  boy  triumphantly.  And  then, 
as  a  doubt  entered  his  mind,  he  added : 

"He  isn't  laughing  at  me,  is  he,  papa 
day?" 

"No,  Tad,"  said  the  President,  rising 
and  putting  his  arm  about  the  shoulders 
of  his  son.  "No,  I  don't  think  Mars  is 
laughing  at  you,  but  just  to  clinch  the 
thing,  I'd  make  him  give  me  a  regular 
commission  if  I  were  you." 

Instantly  Tad  was  in  full  eruption 
again. 

"You  mean  a  paper  that  I  can  show 
folks  so  they'll  know  I'm  a  soldier?" 
he  cried,  and  with  the  question  on  his 
lips,  he  scrambled  headlong  to  the  table 
for  paper,  and  then  to  the  Secretary, 
like  a  small  hurricane  in  knickerbockers, 
16 


TAD  AND   HIS   FATHER 

and  that  willing  official  promptly  drew 
up  an  impressive  looking  document,  re 
quiring  the  proper  clerks  in  his  Depart 
ment  to  issue  a  commission  as  first 
lieutenant,  and  to  provide  the  uniform 
and  sword  of  the  rank,  the  commission 
to  be  presented  to  himself  for  his  signa 
ture,  and  to  be  forwarded  duly  to  the 
White  House  to  Thomas  Lincoln,  aged 
nine  years. 

Tad  beamed  upon  the  Secretary, 
dashed  at  the  long  legs  of  his  father  and 
wrapped  his  arms  about  one  of  them  for 
a  moment,  and  without  another  word 
clattered  out  of  the  door  and  down  the 
hall. 

"Well,  Mars,"  said  the  President,  "I 
reckon  you've  made  the  boy  so  happy 
that  the  place  won't  hold  him  for  awhile. 
17 


TAD  AND   HIS   FATHER 

I  don't  think  you'll  regret  what  you've 
done,  either.  Did  I  ever  tell  you  about 
Sam  Waters  and  the  famous  steed  he 
brought  to  Sangamon  County  ?" 

But  just  then  the  President  glanced 
again  at  Chase,  and  as  he  took  in  the 
imperious  figure,  the  arms  still  folded 
and  the  countenance  stamped  unmis 
takably  with  disapproval,  he  doubled 
together  with  uproarious  laughter,  in 
which  every  member  of  the  circle  joined, 
excepting  only  the  martinet  who  watched 
over  the  finances  of  the  nation. 

"Well,  boys,"  said  the  President  pres 
ently,  "we'll  get  back  to  work  and  let 
the  Sangamon  steed  go  for  this  time." 

An  hour  later,  the  others  having  gone 
their  several  ways,  the  President  walked 
across  with  Stanton  from  the  White 
18 


TAD  AND  HIS  FATHER 

House  to  the  big  building  which  housed 
the  War  Department.  As  they  left  the 
mansion,  they  caught  sight  of  a  group  of 
boys  sitting  on  a  flight  of  steps  at  the 
rear.  They  had  been  having  a  feast, 
and  Tad,  nutcracker  in  hand,  was  dis 
tributing  the  final  course.  Perry  Kelly, 
who  was  about  Tad's  own  age,  was  the 
son  of  a  Pennsylvania  Avenue  tinsmith. 
Bobby  Grover's  father  was  the  manager 
of  the  National  Theatre,  usually  called 
Grover's,  to  which  the  President  went 
more  frequently,  perhaps,  than  to  the 
better-known  playhouse  conducted  by 
John  T.  Ford.  Charlie  Forbes,  the  big 
Irish  footman,  happened  to  be  passing, 
and  he  stopped  to  look  on  for  a  moment, 
only  to  have  his  hands  filled  with  nuts 
by  the  generous  master  of  ceremonies. 
19 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

The  Secretary  and  the  President  re 
garded  the  scene  as  they  crossed  the 
lawn,  and  Lincoln  remarked  humor 
ously  : 

"'Oil's  well  that  ends  well',  as  my 
friend  Nasby  says.  I  reckon  the 
kitchen's  ours." 

The  President  called  Tad  the  tyrant 
of  the  White  House,  and  the  degree  of 
liberty  enjoyed  by  the  boy  was  almost 
a  scandal  in  the  eyes  of  some  very 
"proper"  persons.  The  father's  habit  of 
"having  a  little  fun  with  the  boys", 
with  the  simple  manners  and  the  story 
telling  practices,  came  right  along  to 
Washington  from  the  plain  home  in 
Illinois.  Willie,  the  second  of  the  three 
lads,  died  in  February,  1862,  and  from 
that  time,  as  Robert,  the  oldest,  was 
20 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

away  at  school,  the  President  indulged 
"Tadpole"  more  than  ever  and  made 
him  almost  a  constant  companion.  The 
lively  little  fellow  always  had  some  active 
enterprise  on  hand,  but  he  was  treated 
with  affectionate  toleration  by  every 
occupant  of  the  mansion,  while  the 
office-seekers  petted  him  and  the  offi 
cials  of  the  various  departments  showered 
gifts  upon  him.  One  presented  him 
with  a  box  of  tools,  and  the  boy  pro 
ceeded  to  use  them  not  only  in  the 
stables  and  the  kitchen  but  in  the  "show 
rooms"  of  the  White  House  as  well. 
The  big  table  in  the  Cabinet  Room  was 
used  once  or  twice  for  a  work-bench ; 
he  drove  nails  into  the  old-fashioned 
mahogany  desk  used  by  John  Hay; 
and  he  carried  his  experiments  in  car- 

21 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

pentry  into  the  small  room  in  which 
his  father  slept ;  but  when  he  attacked 
the  chairs  in  the  showy  East  Room,  the 
tools  disappeared  overnight,  and  no 
one  seemed  to  know  what  had  become 
of  them. 

Conditions  in  the  White  House  favored 
the  innocent  lawlessness  of  the  boy. 
Visitors  came  in  swarms  from  early 
morning  until  midnight.  Office-seekers, 
military  and  naval  commanders,  private 
soldiers,  inventors  with  devices  which 
they  fondly  believed  would  revolution 
ize  warfare,  stricken  fathers  and  mothers 
upon  errands  of  supplication,  often 
blockaded  the  way  between  the  Presi 
dent's  office  and  the  private  apartments 
of  his  family.  The  President  did  not 
care  for  ceremony,  and  in  that  critical 
22 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

period  unimportant  formalities  were 
thought  by  many  persons  to  be  out  of 
place.  Lincoln,  with  his  burden  of 
responsibility  for  the  preservation  of 
the  Republic,  lived  with  the  single  pur 
pose  of  saving  the  Union,  and  found  his 
relaxation  in  telling  stories,  attending 
the  theatre,  reading  the  poets,  and  pour 
ing  out  the  fullness  of  his  tender  heart 
upon  the  one  child  who  shared  his  home, 
the  warm-blooded  boy  who  was  all  the 
dearer  because  of  an  impediment  in  his 
speech. 

That  September  day  of  1862  was  one 
of  the  very  liveliest  days  for  mischievous, 
impulsive,  imperious,  sensitive,  boister 
ous,  big-hearted  Tad.  No  one  about 
the  White  House  forgot  it  for  a  long 
time.  "What  will  he  do  next?"  asked 
23 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

Louis,  the  messenger,  of  James  Halliday, 
the  White  House  carpenter.  Only  a 
few  hours  after  he  burst  in  upon  the 
Cabinet  meeting,  a  new  freak  caused  a 
hubbub  throughout  the  mansion.  The 
President  was  busy  over  the  charts  and 
papers  in  his  workroom.  All  the  secre 
taries,  John  G.  Nicolay,  John  Hay,  and 
William  O.  Stoddard,  were  in  their  places. 
Below  stairs  parties  of  visitors  were 
strolling  about  the  public  apartments. 
Suddenly  the  bell  above  the  desk  of 
Secretary  Stoddard  jangled  violently. 
Hastily  the  young  assistant  jumped  up ; 
he  was  startled,  for  never  before  had 
the  President  rung  so  vehemently.  As 
he  turned  toward  the  President's  room, 
he  heard  other  doors  opening  hurriedly, 
and  both  the  senior  secretaries  came 
24 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

hustling  in.  And  along  the  hall,  almost 
running,  came  the  messenger,  and  to  the 
amazement  of  the  bewildered  group, 
Edward,  the  historic  White  House  door 
keeper,  who  had  served  every  President 
since  Taylor,  was  laboring  up  the  stairs. 
Even  the  bell  in  the  President's  own 
room  was  ringing.  They  were  about 
to  rap  upon  his  door  when  it  swung 
open,  and  the  President  stood  before 
them,  with  a  patient  smile  on  his  face. 

"Maybe  you'd  better  look  for  Tad/' 
he  said. 

Halliday  promptly  acted  upon  the 
hint.  Sure  enough,  way  up  in  the  attic 
he  found  the  boy,  pulling  with  all  his 
might  at  the  yoke  which  formed  the 
connecting  link  for  all  the  bells  of  the 
White  House  system.  The  instant  Tad 
25 


TAD  AND  HIS  FATHER 

saw  the  carpenter,  he  gave  the  yoke  one 
final  swing  and  plunged  for  the  stairs, 
down  which  he  ran  pell-mell  and  charged 
into  the  sure  refuge  of  his  father's  room. 
But  the  President  seemed  already  to  have 
forgotten  the  episode,  for  he  was  in  close 
conversation  with  a  big  man  in  uniform, 
who  was  just  in  from  the  army  lines. 

For  a  most  remarkably  long  time  Tad 
was  quiet.  His  father  sat  in  a  big  chair, 
one  leg  over  its  arm,  his  long  body  twisted 
into  a  grotesque  position  of  rest  and 
comfort.  At  his  knee  stood  the  boy, 
looking  not  at  all  like  the  rollicking 
youngster  who  had  stormed  the  War 
Secretary  that  morning,  but  listening 
gravely  to  the  conference  between  the 
brigadier-general  and  the  commander-in- 
chief  of  the  armies  of  the  United  States. 
26 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

The  door  was  open  a  trifle,  and  the 
President  glanced  up  as  a  quiet  knock 
fell  upon  the  panels.  There  stood  Ed 
ward,  solemnly  rubbing  his  hands.  The 
caller  whom  he  had  ushered  all  the  way 
upstairs  was  invisible  as  yet,  but  a 
cane  with  an  ornamental  handle  pro 
truded  from  behind  him.  Quick  as  a 
flash  Lincoln  unwound  his  legs  and  rose 
to  his  feet  in  time  to  respond  with 
dignity  to  the  ceremonious  greetings  of 
the  Senator  from  Massachusetts,  Charles 
Sumner.  The  President  knew  that  cane, 
and  its  owner  was  one  of  the  few  men  who 
were  allowed  immediate  access  to  his 
office  at  almost  any  time.  The  general 
retreated  to  a  window,  and  the  boy 
moved  to  the  far  side  of  the  table, 
whence  he  contemplated  with  unblink- 
27 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

ing  eyes  the  distinguished  statesman, 
whose  solemn  mien  and  gorgeous  waist 
coat  were  almost  startling  in  their  in 
congruity.  After  a  little  conversation 
about  the  military  situation,  Mr.  Sumner 
made  known  his  wish  that  a  certain 
gentleman  should  be  appointed  to  a 
certain  consulate.  Considerate  good-bys 
were  then  exchanged,  and  the  senator 
took  his  walking  stick  and  made  an 
elaborate  exit.  As  the  door  closed,  the 
President  smiled  broadly,  noting  the 
curious  and  incredulous  look  upon  the 
soldier's  face. 

"Come  up,  General,"  he  called. 
"When  we  are  in  Rome,  we  must  do  as 
the  Romans  do,  you  know.  I  don't 
know  much  about  bishops,  but  Sumner 
has  always  been  my  idea  of  a  bishop," 
28 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

and  again  he  twisted  his  long  legs  about 
his  favorite  chair  and  snuggled  down 
into  a  comfortable  attitude. 

But  Tad  could  stand  the  quiet  no 
longer.  "Good-by,  papa  day,"  he 
called,  and  out  he  hurried,  closing  the 
door  with  a  resounding  slam.  In  half 
an  hour  the  house  again  was  in  commo 
tion.  Several  ladies  from  Boston  were 
inspecting  the  residence.  In  the  East 
Room  they  looked  with  seemly  reverence, 
although  with  some  disappointment, 
upon  the  velvet  carpet,  the  garish  plush 
upholsterings,  the  frescoed  ceiling,  the 
glittering  chandeliers,  and  the  mahogany 
furniture,  some  of  which  evidently  was 
in  need  of  repairs.  A  door  at  the  far 
end  of  the  main  corridor  opened  with  a 
bang,  and  the  solemn  stillness  was  rudely 
29 


TAD  AND  HIS  FATHER 

shattered  by  a  frightful  racket.  The 
Boston  ladies  were  amazed  and  horrified 
by  what  they  saw.  Charging  through 
the  hall  came  a  shouting  boy,  flourish 
ing  a  long  whip  and  driving  a  pair  of 
goats,  hitched  tandem  fashion  to  a 
kitchen  chair.  The  party  of  visitors 
watched  him  guide  his  horned  team  into 
the  sacred  precincts  of  the  great  East 
Room.  They  heard  him  yell:  "Look 
out  there  !"  and  their  staring  eyes  fol 
lowed  his  course  around  the  big  apart 
ment  and  through  the  doorway,  and  they 
knew  from  what  they  then  heard  that 
he  must  have  driven  those  goats  through 
the  vestibule  and  down  the  front  steps 
of  the  presidential  mansion.  They  gazed 
aghast  at  one  another,  and  it  was  only 
after  an  interval  of  shocked  silence 
30 


TAD  AND  HIS  FATHER 

that  they  achieved  a  sufficient  recovery 
to  make  a  hasty  and  rather  stealthy 
departure  as  from  a  sanctuary  pro 
faned. 

The  sun  was  almost  down  that  day, 
and  the  cool  of  the  evening  was  settling 
over  the  city,  when  the  manager  of  the 
telegraph  office  in  the  War  Department 
came  to  the  White  House  with  a  message 
from  the  governor  of  one  of  the  most 
important  northern  States.  As  he 
entered  the  hall,  passing  the  solemn- 
faced  doorkeeper,  Tad  emerged  from 
some  nook,  seized  his  hand,  and  walked 
up-stairs  with  him.  Lincoln  found  the 
despatch  so  urgent  that  he  decided  to 
have  a  talk  with  the  governor  by  wire. 

"Tad,"  he  asked,  "want  to  go  along 
to  the  War  Department  ?" 
31 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

The  lad  snatched  up  a  gray  plaid 
shawl  which  was  hanging  from  a  tall 
desk  standing  against  the, wall,  the  father 
threw  it  over  his  shoulders,  and  the  three 
tramped  down-stairs  together.  As  they 
reached  the  gravel  walk,  Lincoln 
stretched  out  his  long  arm  and  picked 
up  a  pebble,  challenging  the  others  to 
a  game  of  "followings."  The  President 
proved  much  the  best  marksman.  Most 
of  Tad's  shots,  to  his  chagrin,  went  wild. 
His  father  kept  the  marker  stone  well 
ahead,  and  laughed  heartily  when,  as 
the  Department  was  reached,  he  was 
declared  the  winner. 

"If  your  arms  were  as  long  as  mine, 
I  reckon  you'd  throw  better,"  he  said. 

In  the  cipher  room  the  President  hung 
his  shawl  over  the  top  of  the  screen  door 
32 


TAD  AND  HIS  FATHER 

opening  into  the  larger  apartment  in 
which  the  operators  sat  at  their  clicking 
keys,  and  took  his  accustomed  place  at 
a  desk  between  two  windows.  Presently 
questions  and  replies  were  being  ex 
changed  over  the  wire,  and  when  the 
President's  inquiries  had  been  answered 
satisfactorily,  he  leaned  back  in  his 
chair  and  stared  intently  out  upon  Penn 
sylvania  Avenue.  The  operators  and 
cipher  readers  looked  at  him  curiously 
as  they  often  had  done  before,  when  that 
mood  of  melancholy  meditation  settled 
upon  him.  No  one  disturbed  him. 

Tad  meantime  promptly  got  into 
trouble.  In  the  telegraph  room  the  in 
struments  were  set  upon  marble-topped 
tables,  and  the  boy  freakishly  dipped 
his  fingers  into  an  ink-well  and  smeared 
33 


TAD  AND  HIS  FATHER 

several  of  the  white  slabs.  For  several 
minutes  no  one  noticed  what  he  was 
doing,  and  then  an  operator  seized  the 
boy  and  led  him  at  arm's  length  to  the 
cipher  room.  Every  one  was  a  little 
embarrassed  when  Tad  faced  his  father 
and  held  up  his  blackened  fingers. 

The  President  glanced  at  the  table- 
tops,  smiled  a  little  at  the  operator  who 
still  clutched  the  boy's  shoulder,  and 
gathered  the  youngster  up  into  his  arms, 
careless  of  the  damage  the  inky  hands 
might  do  to  his  linen,  saying  quietly : 
"Well,  Tad,  we'll  go ;  I'm  afraid  they're 
abusing  you."  Back  across  the  lawn  to 
the  White  House  he  carried  the  lad, 
completing  the  last  of  the  three  trips 
which  he  made  every  day  between  his 
home  and  the  office  to  which  came  the 
34 


TAD  AND  HIS  FATHER 

despatches  from  the  armies  in  the  field. 
It  never  seemed  to  occur  to  the  Presi 
dent  that  there  was  any  sacrifice  of 
personal  dignity  in  his  going  thus  to  the 
War  Department  for  news. 

Late  that  night,  after  the  President 
had  worked  for  many  hours  over  the 
ever-accumulating  piles  of  papers  on  the 
table  in  his  office,  he  sought  his  bed 
room,  a  small  apartment  just  across  the 
hall  from  the  room  in  which  Tad  slept. 
Lincoln  was  in  a  calico  dressing-gown, 
which  reached  clear  to  his  ankles,  and  he 
shuffled  along  in  old-fashioned  leather 
slippers,  above  which  showed  a  margin 
of  home-made  blue  stockings.  He  set 
down  his  candle,  closed  the  door,  and 
picked  up  a  little  volume  of  the  poems 
of  Thomas  Hood.  He  had  scarcely 
35 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

settled    into    a    chair    when    the    signal 
tapping  began  upon  the  panels  — 

Instantly  his  face  lost  its  look  of 
weariness,  and  with  a  smile  that  made 
the  homely  countenance  wonderfully 
handsome,  he  drew  the  bolt  and  ad 
mitted  the  boy.  In  bounced  Tad  in 
his  white  nightgown.  Many  a  night  upon 
waking  he  had  crossed  the  hall  and  crept 
into  his  father's  bed.  And  to-night  again 
the  President  and  Tad,  the  lonely  man 
who  bore  in  his  heart  the  sorrows  of  the 
nation  and  the  lad  in  whose  comradeship 
he  found  relief  from  the  awful  ordeal 
which  it  was  his  duty  to  endure,  the 
father  and  the  boy  together  entered  the 
peaceful  refuge  of  sleep. 


II 

THE  Secretary  of  War  completely 
and  promptly  fulfilled  his  promise 
to  provide  Tad  with  the  uniform  and 
other  equipments  appropriate  to  the  rank 
which  had  been  conferred  upon  him. 
From  the  arsenal  twenty-five  guns  were 
sent  over  to  the  White  House,  and  these 
the  youngest  lieutenant  of  United  States 
Volunteers  was  permitted  to  keep  in  a 
room  in  the  basement,  while  for  his  own 
headquarters  there  was  assigned  a  room 
near  the  laundry.  The  energetic  boy 
proceeded  at  once  to  draft  recruits  for 
a  company,  and  the  gardeners  and  ser 
vants  about  the  mansion  were  duly 
37 


TAD  AND  HIS  FATHER 

drilled  and  marched  around  the  grounds 
and  through  the  halls  of  the  house.  The 
juvenile  autocrat  even  dismissed  the 
regular  sentries  one  evening  and  kept 
his  company  on  guard  duty  until  they 
were  relieved  by  a  special  deputy  under 
the  authority  of  the  commander-in- 
chief. 

In  the  pride  of  his  heart,  Tad  caused 
himself  to  be  photographed  several  times 
in  his  pretty  uniform,  gloves,  cap,  sword, 
and  all.  When,  in  the  heat  of  the  sum 
mer,  the  family  removed  to  the  stone 
cottage  in  the  grounds  of  the  Soldiers' 
Home  in  the  suburbs  of  Washington,  the 
young  lieutenant  in  full  uniform  often 
rode  out  from  the  city  in  the  evening, 
ambling  along  on  his  pony  beside  the 
towering  figure  of  the  President.  In  the 
38 


TAD  AND  HIS  FATHER 

heated  term,  however,  he  went  north 
with  his  mother,  leaving  his  father,  as 
he  said,  to  "bache  it"  in  the  summer 
residence. 

During  these  absences,  the  boy  was 
constantly  in  his  father's  mind.  In  Lin 
coln's  letters  there  were  frequent 
thoughtful  allusions  to  his  son.  "Tell 
dear  Tad,"  he  wrote,  "poor  'Nanny 
Goat'  is  lost,  and  the  housekeeper  and 
I  are  in  great  distress  about  it.  The 
day  you  left,  Nanny  was  found  resting 
herself  and  chewing  her  little  cud  in 
the  middle  of  Tad's  bed ;  but  now  she 
is  gone !  The  gardeners  kept  complain 
ing  that  she  destroyed  the  flowers  until 
it  was  concluded  to  bring  her  down  to 
the  White  House.  This  was  done,  and 
the  second  day  she  disappeared,  and  has 
39 


TAD  AND  HIS  FATHER 

not  been  heard  of  since.  This  is  the 
last  we  know  of  poor  'Nanny' !" 

Again  the  President,  always  sensitive 
to  the  possible  significance  of  the  dreams 
which  visited  him  at  various  times  when 
important  events  impended,  telegraphed 
Mrs.  Lincoln  at  Philadelphia  to  put 
Tad's  pistol  away,  for  he  had  had  "an 
ugly  dream  about  him." 

The  great  event  in  the  military  life 
of  Tad  was  the  grand  review  of  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac,  when  he  shared 
the  honors  with  the  President.  Down 
the  river  the  party  sailed  on  a  little 
steamboat  to  Aquia  Creek,  and  thence, 
in  an  ordinary  freight  car,  with  rough 
plank  benches  for  seats,  but  abundantly 
bedecked  with  flags,  they  rode  to  Fal- 
mouth  station.  In  an  ambulance, 
40 


TAD  AND  HIS  FATHER 

guarded  by  a  cavalry  escort,  they  went 
on  to  the  headquarters  of  the  army, 
where  several  large  hospital  tents  with 
wooden  floors  and  camp  bedsteads  were 
assigned  for  their  use. 

For  five  days  the  party  were  in  camp, 
and  during  the  time  Tad  was  a  very 
busy  boy.  On  the  first  day  he  explored 
the  whole  outfit,  the  printing  office,  the 
telegraph  station,  the  big  bakery,  the 
tents  of  the  officers,  and  the  hospitals, 
and  everywhere  he  was  made  welcome. 
He  wanted  to  see  how  the  "gray  backs" 
looked,  and  was  taken  down  to  the 
picket  lines  opposite  Fredericksburg  to 
have  a  peep  at  them.  The  smoke  of 
the  camp-fires  of  the  enemy  ascended 
from  behind  a  ridge,  and  above  a  hand 
some  residence  on  a  height  floated  a 
41 


TAD  AND  HIS  FATHER 

flag  of  stars  and  bars.  Confederate  sen 
tinels  strode  jauntily  down  to  the  river's 
brink  and  peered  across  the  stream. 

On  each  of  the  following  days  there 
was  a  parade  and  review.  For  the  first 
time  the  entire  cavalry  force  of  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac  had  been  massed  as  one 
corps,  and  scores  of  regiments  of  infantry 
also  were  ready  for  inspection.  To  these 
reviews  there  rode  from  headquarters 
from  day  to  day  a  brilliant  cavalcade. 
In  the  train  there  were  captains,  and 
colonels,  brigadier-generals,  and  major- 
generals,  and  numbers  of  staff  officers. 
Upon  the  flank  were  the  President's 
guard  of  honor,  the  Philadelphia  Lancers, 
in  showy,  gold-laced  uniforms,  and 
superbly  mounted.  In  front  of  the 
column  rode  the  commanding  general 
42 


TAD  AND  HIS  FATHER 

and  the  commander-in-chief.  And  some 
what  to  one  side,  riding  the  small  gray 
horse  which  had  been  provided  for  him, 
and  attended  by  a  young  trooper  as 
signed  to  act  as  his  orderly,  rode  Tad. 

The  great  spectacle  was  the  cavalry 
review,  but  the  sixty  thousand  infantry 
men  who  marched  past  the  reviewing 
staff  made  an  impressive  sight.  Tad 
delighted  especially  in  the  gallop  down 
the  long  lines,  and  in  the  thrilling  effect 
of  the  martial  music  of  the  trumpets, 
throbbing  drums,  and  shrilling  fifes. 

The  President  was  not  a  graceful 
rider.  The  general  sat  his  horse  like  a 
dragoon,  but  the  very  height  of  Lincoln 
made  him  look  awkward  on  horseback. 
Some  who  saw  him  those  days  were 
reminded  of  the  saying  that  his  legs 
43 


TAD  AND  HIS  FATHER 

were  so  long  that  it  was  impossible  to 
exaggerate  them.  Spectators  wondered 
if  they  would  not  become  entangled 
with  the  legs  of  his  horse.  The  left 
hand  held  the  reins,  and  the  arm  was  so 
long  that  the  elbow  projected  behind 
his  back  for  all  the  world  like  the  hind 
leg  of  a  grasshopper.  The  situation  was 
made  all  the  more  absurd  by  his  stove 
pipe  hat.  This  he  constantly  removed 
in  saluting  the  men  in  the  ranks,  although 
he  merely  touched  it  in  acknowledging 
the  courtesies  of  the  officers,  and  its 
management  was  a  rather  precarious 
feat  of  dexterity. 

But  how  the  soldiers  liked  him  !    They 

called    him    "Father   Abraham;"     they 

repeated   his   droll    stories,    praising   his 

shrewdness  and  his  wit ;    and  they  de- 

44 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

clared  that  when  he  found  out  about 
their  complaints,  every  case  would  be 
adjusted.  What  did  it  matter  if  his 
trousers  were  half  way  up  to  his  knees 
and  his  socks  visible  to  all  the  army  ? 
He  had  a  heart  for  the  common  soldier, 
which  was  more  than  could  be  said  for 
most  of  the  "fuss  and  feathers"  com 
manders  they  might  name. 

And  then  the  word  was  passed  from 
rank  to  rank  that  the  boy  riding  on  the 
flank  of  the  reviewing  column,  with  his 
short  legs  sticking  straight  out  from 
his  saddle,  was  Tad.  And  how  they 
cheered  him  !  He  was  in  the  lieutenant's 
uniform,  and  a  gray  riding  cloak  floated 
behind  him,  as  his  pony  galloped  across 
the  fields.  No  wonder  that  the  soldiers 
burst  into  an  ecstasy  of  enthusiasm  over 
45 


TAD  AND   HIS   FATHER 

him.  Thousands  of  them  had  boys  at 
home.  Father  Abraham  had  brought 
this  sturdy,  fresh-faced  youngster  with 
him  just  on  purpose  to  let  them  know 
that  he  did  not  forget  their  families. 
Well,  it  was  just  like  him.  God  bless 
him --he  had  a  heart  for  the  common 
soldier.  Hurrah  for  the  President  and 
hurrah  for  the  boy !  They  swung  their 
hats  and  cheered  for  Lincoln,  and  they 
cheered  and  swung  their  hats  for  Tad. 
He  was  a  reminder  of  home  and  of  what 
was  waiting  for  them  when  they  should 
get  home. 

And  how  Tad  enjoyed  it  all.  Some 
one  told  him  that  he  ought  to  doff  his 
cap  to  the  soldiers,  but  he  said  :  'That's 
the  way  the  general  and  father  do,  but 
I'm  only  a  boy."  He  rode  hard  and  was 
46 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

quite  fearless  in  the  saddle,  although 
there  was  some  danger  at  times  that  he 
would  be  thrown  from  his  horse.  But 
the  orderly  was  always  on  guard,  and 
every  night  brought  him  into  camp 
greatly  excited,  but  safe,  and  very,  very 
hungry. 

Tad  and  his  father  were  frequent 
patrons  of  the  theatre.  Both  to 
Grover's  and  to  Ford's  they  came  to  see 
extravaganzas  and  occasionally  a  min 
strel  show,  and  the  President  was  con 
stantly  in  attendance  when  Shakespeare 
was  played.  He  came  often  for  no 
other  purpose  than  to  get  away  from 
the  multitudes  who  constantly  impor 
tuned  him  at  the  White  House.  Some 
times  they  were  a  family  party,  and 
again  Tad  and  his  tutor  would  come 
47 


TAD  AND   HIS   FATHER 

alone.  Burke,  the  White  House  coach 
man,  would  drive  them  to  the  door, 
Charlie  Forbes  would  leap  to  the  ground 
and  pilot  them  into  the  theatre,  and 
after  the  performance  the  carriage  would 
be  waiting  to  take  them  home.  The 
family  came  to  Grover's  to  see  Charlotte 
Cushman,  J.  W.  Wallack,  and  E.  L. 
Davenport,  when  they  appeared  together 
in  "  Macbeth  "  for  the  benefit  of  the  Sani 
tary  Commission  ;  and  when  Edwin  Booth 
was  in  Washington  for  his  only  visit  dur 
ing  wartime,  they  saw  him  in  "  Othello," 
the  "  Merchant  of  Venice,"  and  John 
Howard  Payne's  "  Brutus." 

Tad    became    so    much    at    home    at 

Grover's  that  he  made  a  chum  of  the 

director's  son  and  frequently  visited  the 

stage  rehearsals  alone.    The  stage  attaches 

48 


TAD  AND  HIS  FATHER 

at  once  became  his  friends,  and  the  restless 
lad  was  permitted  to  "assist"  in  placing 
the  properties  when  the  settings  were 
changed,  so  that  at  last  he  was  spending 
more  time  behind  than  before  the  scenes. 
Indeed,  he  got  almost  as  severe  an  attack 
of  stage  fever  as  of  the  military  disease, 
and  rigged  up  a  little  theatre  of  his  own 
in  a  small  room  in  the  White  House. 
Perry  Kelly  and  Bobby  Grover  were 
the  " actors",  and  Leonard  Grover,  the 
latter's  father,  loaned  the  lads  some 
costumes  and  a  few  pieces  of  stage 
furniture.  Halliday's  services  were  de 
manded  of  the  President,  and  the  car 
penter  arranged  the  orchestra,  par 
quet,  stage,  curtains,  and  footlights  for 
their  miniature  playhouse.  Several  little 
"dramas"  were  duly  produced  with  the 
49 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

employes  of  the  mansion  playing 
audience,  and  on  one  or  two  occasions 
the  President  appeared  chuckling  at  the 
door ;  and  once  he  was  accompanied 
by  a  distinguished  war  governor  whom 
he  brought  over  from  his  workshop  "to 
have  a  look  at  the  latest  freak  of  the 
boys."  In  one  instance  a  minstrel  show 
was  given  in  the  attic. 

While  the  artist,  Frank  B.  Carpenter, 
was  at  work  upon  his  emancipation 
group,  he  made  use  of  the  "theatre" 
as  a  dark  room  in  which  the  photogra 
phers,  who  were  taking  pictures  to  aid 
him,  might  do  their  work.  This  in 
censed  the  spirited  boy,  who  felt  that 
his  rights  had  been  challenged.  He 
turned  out  the  photographers  and  locked 
the  door  upon  their  plates  and  chemicals. 
50 


TAD  AND  HIS  FATHER 

Not  until  the  President  hunted  up  the 
boy  would  he  yield  the  key,  and  then, 
as  Mr.  Carpenter  told  the  story,  Lin 
coln  said :  "When  I  went  to  him,  he 
was  violently  excited.  I  said  to  him : 
'Tad,  do  you  know  you  are  making 
your  father  a  great  deal  of  trouble?' 
Then  he  burst  into  tears  and  instantly 
gave  up  the  key." 

One  night,  early  in  1864,  Grover's 
National  Theatre  was  so  crowded  that 
scarcely  a  foot  of  standing  room  was 
unoccupied.  The  audience  represented 
almost  every  class  of  persons  in  the 
States  of  the  West  and  North.  Fashion 
able  women  filled  the  boxes,  some  of 
them  belonging  to  old  .Washington  fam 
ilies  whose  sympathies  were  predomi 
nantly  with  the  South.  They  were  openly 


TAD  AND   HIS   FATHER 

stared  at  by  the  army  officers  who  solidly 
rilled  the  front  rows  in  the  pit.  The 
permanent  and  the  floating  populations 
of  the  city  were  mingled  in  the  crowd, 
and  many  strangers  looked  curiously 
upon  the  scene.  The  predominating 
color  was  army  blue,  for  multitudes  of 
soldiers  were  always  in  the  city  in  those 
days.  Many  Congressmen  and  several 
Senators  were  present,  and  the  audience 
had  loudly  cheered  two  or  three  well- 
known  army  commanders  as  they  came 
down  the  aisles.  The  orchestra  was 
vigorously  playing  the  popular  war  songs 
of  the  day,  and  hundreds  sang  the 
choruses. 

Just    as    the    people    were    becoming 
somewhat      impatient,      the      President 
arrived.     It   had   been   announced   that 
52 


TAD  AND  HIS  FATHER 

he  would  be  present,  and  a  box  at  the 
right  of  the  stage  was  designated  for 
his  occupancy  by  the  flags  with  which 
it  was  festooned.  The  appearance  of 
an  usher  at  the  door  of  the  box  was  the 
signal  for  the  audience  to  stand.  A 
minute  later  the  President  entered,  and 
with  him  was  a  small  boy  who  stood  at 
his  side  for  a  moment,  looking  out  upon 
the  house.  There  was  a  burst  of  ap 
plause,  and  Lincoln  bowed  gravely.  As 
soon  as  he  was  seated,  the  curtain  rose, 
but  for  a  time  many  in  the  audience 
paid  little  attention  to  the  stage.  Scores 
of  opera  glasses  were  turned  upon  the 
President's  box,  and  hundreds  who  had 
never  seen  the  chief  magistrate  of  the 
nation  watched  him  intently  now. 
The  "play"  was  better  calculated, 
53 


TAD  AND  HIS  FATHER 

perhaps,  to  appeal  to  the  boy  than  to 
his  father.  Tad  had  seen  it  before 
more  than  once,  and  it  was  he,  indeed, 
who  had  persuaded  his  father  to  attend 
the  performance.  It  was  billed  as  a 
" spectacular  extravaganza"  under  the 
title  of  "The  Seven  Sisters",  and  it  had 
run  for  more  than  eight  months  at 
Laura  Keene's  Theatre  in  New  York 
City.  Founded  upon  an  old  German 
play  called  "The  Seven  Daughters  of 
Satan " ,  it  represented  the  group  of 
sisters  as  escaping  for  a  time  from  the 
Plutonian  realms  for  a  visit  to  the  earth. 
The  conclusion  was  a  "transformation 
scene"  depicting  "the  birth  of  Cupid" 
and  advertised  as  a  great  triumph  of 
stagecraft.  A  play  of  such  a  nature 
admitted  of  many  interpolations,  and 
54 


TAD  AND  HIS  FATHER 

during  its  Washington  run  patriotic  epi 
sodes  were  freely  introduced.  In  one 
army  tableau  "Rally 'Round  the  Flag" 
was  sung  by  a  soloist,  with  a  big  chorus 
coming  in  on  the  refrain,  and  such 
characters  as  Uncle  Sam  and  Columbia, 
Liberty  and  Union,  Massachusetts  and 
South  Carolina  were  added  to  the  usual 
cast.  The  play  was  all  movement  and 
lilting  melody,  color  and  tinsel,  and  it 
stirred  the  audience  to  much  laughter  and 
enthusiasm.  Persons  who  studied  the 
face  of  the  President  could  see  that  he  had 
forgotten  the  cares  of  his  office,  that  he 
was  not  thinking  of  the  strategy  of  the 
campaign  nor  of  the  clamor  of  the  office- 
seekers.  Politics  and  war  had  no  exist 
ence  for  the  time.  He  smiled  broadly 
and  occasionally  laughed  heartily.  Tad 
55 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

had  disappeared,  but  the  President 
thought  nothing  of  it,  for  the  boy  had 
the  run  of  the  house,  and  every  usher 
and  stage  hand  was  his  friend. 

Quite  in  his  accustomed  way  the  boy 
had  gone  behind  the  scenes,  where  he 
roamed  about  at  will,  responding  to  the 
greetings  of  his  acquaintances.  Finally  he 
went  to  a  wardrobe  and  took  out  an  army 
blouse  much  too  big  for  him,  but  into 
which  he  struggled  nevertheless,  and 
found  a  cap  which  proved  a  better  fit. 
Thus  rigged  out,  he  strolled  among  the 
"gallant  soldier  boys"  of  the  chorus, 
until  the  finale  came  in  the  army  episode. 

Now  it  happened  that  at  the  time  the 

celebrated  John  McDonough  was  taking 

a  leading  part  in  the  spectacle,  and  in 

the   final   tableau   it   was   he  who   sang 

56 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

"The  Battle  Cry  of  Freedom "  with 
thrilling  effect.  The  soldiers  and  fairies 
who  filled  the  stage  joined  in  the  choruses, 
and  it  was  expected  that  at  the  end  the 
audience  would  catch  the  infection,  so 
that  stage,  pit,  galleries,  and  boxes  would 
all  be  singing  together. 

Tad  that  night  walked  boldly  out  upon 
the  stage  with  the  chorus  and  took  a 
place  at  the  end  of  the  front  line,  looking 
grotesquely  conspicuous  in  his  misfit 
uniform.  McDonough  sang  the  first 
stanza,  and  as  the  chorus  swung  into 
the  refrain,  he  caught  sight  of  Tad,  whom 
he  knew  to  be  the  President's  son.  In 
stantly  the  soloist  walked  across  the 
stage  and  placed  the  silk  flag  he  carried 
in  the  boy's  hands.  The  lad  rose  to 
the  occasion  and  waved  the  flag  with 
57 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

all  his  might,  as  McDonough  sang  the 
second  stanza.  While  the  second  chorus 
was  sung,  the  soloist  led  Tad  forward 
and  sang  the  remaining  stanzas  with 
the  boy  standing  at  his  side.  The 
theatre  grew  so  still  that  the  dropping 
of  a  fan  in  one  of  the  boxes  startled  the 
entire  audience.  Every  eye  was  fixed 
upon  the  strange  little  figure  standing  be 
side  the  soloist.  The  chorus  concluded, 
McDonough  acted  upon  an  inspiration 
of  the  moment  and  sang  it  over  again, 
using  a  variant,  however,  which  made  a 
blend  of  two  popular  songs  of  the  day : 

"  We  are  coming,  Father  Abraham,  three  hundred 

thousand  more, 

Shouting  the  battle-cry  of  freedom, 
We  will  rally  'round  the  flag,  boys,  rally  once 

again, 
Shouting  the  battle-cry  of  freedom." 

58 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

The  innovation  must  be  intended  as 
an  impersonation  of  the  spirit  of  juvenile 
patriotism,  thought  the  audience.  But 
how  small  the  boy  was,  how  ridiculous 
was  the  man's  blouse  he  was  wearing, 
and  how  intently  he  was  watching  the 
President's  box  !  McDonough  was  help 
ing  him  wave  the  flag,  as  if  in  salutation 
of  the  nation's  chief  executive.  And 
how  amazed  the  President  seemed  to 
be.  Surely  that  look  of  astonishment 
must  mean  something  more  than  sur 
prise  at  this  novelty  in  the  performance. 

McDonough  sang  the  third  stanza  : 

"  We  will  welcome  to  our  numbers  the  loyal,  true, 

and  brave, 

Shouting  the  battle-cry  of  freedom, 
And  altho'  they  may  be  poor  not  a  man  shall 

be  a  slave, 
Shouting  the  battle-cry  of  freedom." 

59 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

A  whisper  ran  over  the  house  like  a 
fire  over  an  Illinois  prairie.  It  passed 
from  lip  to  lip,  and  every  one  who  heard 
it  looked  again  first  at  the  boy  and  then 
at  the  President.  Some  one  had  recog 
nized  the  lad --some  Senator  or  Repre 
sentative  probably,  who  saw  him  every 
little  while  at  the  White  House.  "It's 
Tad  Lincoln!"  The  word  reached  the 
gallery,  and  in  a  minute  or  two  the 
farthest  spectator  in  the  rearmost  seat 
had  heard  it.  'Tad  Lincoln,  the  Pres 
ident's  son.  Father  Abraham  is  in  the 
box,  and  his  boy  is  on  the  stage!" 

Everybody  knew  about  Tad.  They 
had  seen  him  riding  through  the  streets 
in  the  big  black  carriage  behind  the  two 
black  horses.  "That's  the  boy,"  said 
one  soldier  to  another.  "I  saw  him 
60 


TAD  AND  HIS  FATHER 

with  his  father  watching  the  ball  game 
between  the  Commissary  and  the 
Quartermaster's  departments  out  at 
Sixth  and  K  streets  the  other  day." 
Others  had  seen  him  playing  with  his 
dog  team  by  the  Potomac,  and  just  a 
few  days  before  he  had  kept  shop  in  the 
historic  portico  of  the  Presidential  man 
sion.  Halliday  had  supplied  him  with 
some  boards  and  trestles,  and  he  had 
spread  out  his  stock  of  apples  and  ginger 
bread  where  no  one  could  enter  the  build 
ing  without  being  importuned  to  buy. 
The  stock  was  purchased  from  an  old 
woman  who  had  a  stand  near  the  Treas 
ury  Building.  Tad  explained  that  his 
was  one  of  the  fairs  for  the  benefit  of 
the  Sanitary  Commission  which  then 
were  so  common  throughout  the  country. 
61 


TAD  AND  HIS  FATHER 

Every  office-seeker  and  every  office 
holder  who  passed  through  the  portico 
was  glad  to  buy  of  "the  President's 
son",  some  of  the  customers  hoping 
doubtless  to  reach  the  father  by  this 
indirect  method  of  flattery.  Some  of 
the  men  who  had  been  levied  upon  were 
in  the  theatre  that  night,  and  they  con 
firmed  the  identification  of  the  little 
fellow  who  was  vigorously  waving  the 
big  silk  flag  while  McDonough  sang 
another  stanza. 

"  So  we're  springing  to  the  call  from  the  East  and 

from  the  West, 

Shouting  the  battle-cry  of  freedom, 
And  we'll  hurl  the  rebel  crew  from  the  land  we 

love  the  best, 
Shouting  the  battle-cry  of  freedom." 

A  wave  of  enthusiasm  swept  over  the 
house  as  Tad   bravely  started   in  upon 
62 


TAD  AND  HIS  FATHER 

the  chorus  with  McDonough,  and  the 
hundred  stage  singers  behind  them.  If 
the  President  had  been  surprised,  he 
was  hugely  amused  now.  He  leaned 
far  forward  in  his  chair,  his  hands  upon 
his  knees,  and  swayed  backward  and 
forward  with  laughter.  The  audience 
laughed  in  sympathy  with  him,  and 
although  a  few  of  the  ladies  were  almost 
in  tears,  with  a  mighty  roar  the  great 
crowd  arose,  the  choristers  upon  the 
stage  moved  forward,  and  players,  gal 
lery,  soloist,  and  Tad  all  joined  in  that 
final  refrain : 

"  We  are  coming,  Father  Abraham,  three  hundred 

thousand  more, 

Shouting  the  battle-cry  of  freedom, 
While  we  rally  'round  the  flag,  boys,  rally  once 

again, 
Shouting  the  battle-cry  of  freedom." 

63 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

In  a  great  surge  of  ecstasy  the  chorus, 
sung  again  and  yet  again,  rolled  through 
the  auditorium,  waxing  in  fervor  with 
every  repetition.  It  seemed  to  dominate 
and  absorb  every  soul  there ;  every 
voice  joined  in  it ;  men  who  had  not  sung 
for  years,  and  some  who  fancied  they 
could  not  sing  at  all,  joined  in  that 
simple  tune.  It  rang  forth  with  a  volume 
and  majesty  that  put  thrill  and  fire  into 
the  homely  words,  as  if  a  magnificent 
assurance  had  taken  possession  of  that 
multitude  of  singers,  an  overwhelming 
conviction  that  the  men  would  be  found 
to  save  the  Union. 

That    night    at    Grover's    Theatre    a 

great   tide   of  patriotism   flooded    every 

heart.     Men    and    women    looked    upon 

the  President  and  saw  his  face  wearing 

64 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

a  smile  of  transforming  and  irradiating 
sweetness,  as  he  sat  erect  and  very  still 
in  his  box.  They  looked  at  Tad,  and, 
although  they  could  not  hear  his  voice, 
they  saw  that  his  lips  were  moving,  and 
that  he  kept  his  flag  waving.  And  as 
the  refrain  ended,  an  army  officer  sit 
ting  almost  under  the  stage  led  the 
audience  and  the  players  in  three  lusty 
cheers  for  "Father  Abraham  and  his 
boy."  As  silence  fell  upon  the  weary 
throng,  the  President  rose  and  bowed,  - 
and  no  diplomat  versed  in  the  usages  of 
Old  World  courts  could  have  exceeded 
the  dignified  impressiveness  of  that  ges 
ture,  —  and  the  curtain  came  down. 


Ill 

AS  time  went  on,  the  President  more 
and  more  made  a  companion  of 
the  lively  lad.  General  Grant  came  to 
Washington  and  had  conferences  with 
the  commander-in-chief,  with  Tad  stand 
ing  gravely  by.  On  a  day  shortly  before 
Christmas,  he  interrupted  a  Cabinet 
meeting  to  obtain  a  reprieve  for  a  turkey 
to  which  he  had  taken  a  fancy  and  which 
had  been  marked  for  execution.  Several 
times  he  brought  cases  of  distress  to  the 
attention  of  the  President.  He  would 
go  about  the  hall,  asking  callers  what 
they  wanted.  On«  day  he  found  an 
old,  poorly-dressed  woman  in  the  corridor, 
66 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

and  he  rushed  to  his  father  with  her 
story  of  a  husband  in  a  military  prison 
and  some  cold  and  hungry  boys  and 
girls  at  home.  He  came  back  with  a 
promise  of  help,  and  the  woman  and  the 
boy  cried  together  while  she  called  down 
the  blessings  of  heaven  upon  him.  Tad 
sometimes  took  petitioners  by  the  hand 
and  dragged  them  forthwith  into  his 
father's  presence. 

Almost  every  day  the  President  would 
have  at  least  one  romp  with  the  boy. 
The  game  at  times  was  blind  man's 
buff ;  again  the  tall  man  would  run 
through  the  rooms  and  the  hall  above 
stairs  with  Tad  mounted  upon  his 
shoulders ;  and  often  they  played  horse, 
with  each  alternating  as  the  driver. 
In  the  early  evening  or  late  afternoon, 
67 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

when  the  work  of  the  day  was  about 
over,  and  the  President  had  a  brief 
respite  before  he  began  the  toil  of  the 
night,  he  would  call  the  boy  to  his  side 
and  talk  over  the  doings  of  the  day  with 
him.  They  looked  through  books  of 
engravings  together,  and  Lincoln  sharp 
ened  pencils  for  the  boy  and  helped 
him  keep  track  of  his  playthings.  Fre 
quently  the  lad  fell  asleep  in  the  office, 
and  the  President  would  carry  him  ten 
derly  across  the  hall  to  bed.  A  succes 
sion  of  tutors  came  to  the  White  House, 
but  Tad  was  equally  intolerant  of  them 
all,  and  the  father  said  he  "might  as 
well  run  for  awhile  --  there'd  be  time 
enough  for  him  to  sober  up  and  get 
sedate  in  the  future." 
One  Friday  in  summer  the  President 
68 


TAD  AND  HIS  FATHER 

and  General  Eaton  were  in  conference 
in  the  White  House,  and  Tad  was  mak 
ing  such  a  war  map  as  no  strategist 
ever  would  have  dreamed  of  by  poking 
the  pins  into  the  chart  in  the  corner  at 
his  own  freakish  pleasure.  The  wind 
was  blowing  from  the  Virginia  side  of 
the  Potomac,  and  it  brought  through  the 
windows  the  sound  of  a  musketry  volley. 
The  President  rose  and  walked  across 
the  room  and  stood  gazing  at  the  Virr 
ginia  hills,  with  his  arm  about  Tad's 
shoulders.  As  he  came  back  to  his 
chair,  there  were  tears  streaming  down 
his  cheeks. 

"This    is    the    day   when    they   shoot 
deserters,"  he  said,  "and  I  am  wonder 
ing  whether  I  have  used  the  pardoning 
power    enough.     Some    of    the    officers, 
69 


TAD  AND  HIS  FATHER 

to  be  sure,  say  that  I  am  using  it  so 
freely  that  I  am  demoralizing  the  army 
and  destroying  its  discipline/5  And 
then,  as  Tad  came  to  his  knee,  he  added  : 
"But  Tad  here  tells  me  I'm  doing  right, 
and  Tad's  advice  usually  is  pretty  good." 
And  now  at  last  the  war  was  drawing 
to  a  close.  General  Grant  advised  the 
President  that  the  final  struggle  was  at 
hand,  and  he  started  for  the  head 
quarters  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac. 
A  side-wheel  passenger  steamer  called 
the  River  Queen,  closely  followed  by 
the  despatch  boat  Eat,  left  Washington 
on  the  afternoon  of  March  23,  1865, 
and  on  board  were  the  President,  Mrs. 
Lincoln,  and  Tad.  The  boy  had  the 
run  of  the  boat  and  explored  it  from 
bow  to  stern  and  from  engine-room  to 
70 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

pilot-house.  Late  on  the  evening  of 
March  24,  the  steamer  came  to  anchor 
off  City  Point.  The  next  morning  Tad's 
grown-up  brother,  Robert,  now  a  cap 
tain  on  the  staff  of  General  Grant, 
came  on  board  and  reported  some  de 
tails  of  a  Confederate  assault,  and  at 
the  breakfast  table  the  President,  with 
Tad  at  his  side,  wrote  a  despatch  to 
Stanton  about  uthe  rumpus  at  the 
front."  The  "rumpus"  in  fact  was  the 
severe  action  at  Fort  Stedman,  in  which 
several  thousand  men  were  lost.  Lin 
coln  visited  the  scene ;  he  saw  the  men 
of  the  Sanitary  Commission  attending 
to  the  wounded  and  the  burial  parties 
caring  for  the  dead ;  and  he  returned 
to  the  ship  looking  worn  and  haggard. 
The  next  morning  the  River  Queen 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

steamed  to  Harrison's  Landing,  and  Tad 
was  one  of  the  large  party  which  watched 
Sheridan's  cavalry  crossing  the  river 
there  on  a  pontoon  bridge.  The  vessel 
then  turned  and  passed  through  the 
fleet.  The  ships  were  ranged  in  double 
lines  and  gayly  decked  with  flags,  and 
their  crews  cheered  madly  as  the  Presi 
dent's  boat  went  by. 

During  the  following  days  at  City 
Point,  Tad  found  much  to  interest  him. 
The  river  was  crowded  with  craft,  moni 
tors  and  gunboats,  colliers  and  trans 
ports  ;  the  great  storehouses  ashore  were 
crammed  with  army  supplies,  and  count 
less  wagons  were  coming  and  going  all 
day  long.  The  boy  was  a  welcome  guest 
on  board  Admiral  Porter's  flagship,  the 
Malvern,  and  it  was  an  easy  trip  down 
72 


TAD  AND  HIS  FATHER 

the  gangplank  of  the  River  Queen,  across 
the  pier,  and  up  the  gangplank  of  the 
steamship  Martin,  on  board  of  which 
were  the  family  of  General  Grant.  The 
lad  became  as  great  a  favorite  at  City 
Point  as  he  had  been  in  the  White 
House. 

City  Point  was  opposite  the  triangle 
made  by  the  junction  of  the  Appomat- 
tox,  which  flowed  by  Petersburg,  and 
the  James,  which  flowed  past  Richmond. 
A  long  stairway  led  up  the  hill  to  the 
plateau  upon  which  stood  a  group  of 
log  houses,  in  the  centre  of  which  was 
the  headquarters  cabin,  furnished  only 
with  four  tables,  some  chairs,  and  a 
pile  of  charts.  The  plain  beyond  was 
covered  with  huts  and  tents,  but  these 
had  been  vacated,  for  the  last  hours  of 
73 


TAD  AND  HIS  FATHER 

the  Confederacy  were  at  hand,  and  all 
the  troops  were  in  pursuit  of  Lee. 

Tad  climbed  many  times  to  the  head 
quarters  hut,  and  he  especially  en 
joyed  the  band  which  played  on  the 
plateau  every  afternoon.  "There  comes 
our  band,"  he  would  shout,  as  he 
heard  them  in  the  distance.  One  day 
he  made  the  seventh  in  a  historic  group 
which  included  the  commander-in-chief, 
and  six  of  the  Union  generals,  with 
Grant  and  Sherman  among  them. 

Tad's  mother  returned  to  Washing 
ton  on  April  i,  but  the  boy  remained 
with  his  father.  Sunday,  the  second, 
passed  quietly,  a  beautiful,  mild,  spring 
day.  That  night  great  explosions  shook 
the  earth.  Arsenals,  powder  magazines, 
and  ironclads  were  being  blown  up. 
74 


TAD  AND  HIS  FATHER 

Flying  brands  fired  the  lower  part  of 
the  Confederate  capital,  and  when  dawn 
broke  a  conflagration  was  raging.  The 
last  of  the  soldiers  in  gray  marched 
over  a  bridge  and  burned  it  behind 
them.  There  was  a  little  interval  of 
respite  for  the  city  which  had  flung  back 
the  Federals  again  and  again ;  and  then 
the  soldiers  in  blue  came  marching  in, 
their  bands  playing  '" Yankee  Doodle" 
and  "The  Star  Spangled  Banner."  All 
Monday  Richmond  was  a  city  of  des 
olation,  peopled  with  destitute  women 
and  children.  Piles  of  furniture  were 
heaped  upon  the  grass,  which  sprang 
fresh  and  green  in  the  parks  and  squares. 
The  fruit  trees  already  were  in  bloom, 
and  butterflies  were  hovering  about  the 
dandelions.  All  nature  was  smiling 
75 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

upon  Richmond,  encircled  with  trenches 
and  forts,  battle-torn  and  scarred,  full 
of  starvation  and  sickness,  as  if  the 
spirit  of  the  springtime  would  bring 
balm  to  the  hearts  of  a  people  who  for 
four  years  had  hoped  and  prayed  and 
endured  and  desperately  struggled  on. 
The  next  day  the  President  came. 
Up  the  James  River,  in  a  big  barge 
manned  by  twelve  sturdy  sailors,  the 
emancipator  was  brought  to  the  Con 
federate  capital.  The  boat  carried 
also  a  detachment  of  marines,  a  naval 
captain,  an  officer  of  the  signal  corps, 
a  cipher  telegraph  operator,  Admiral 
Porter,  and  a  small  boy.  Lincoln  in 
tently  watched  the  city  as  the  barge 
drew  near  a  landing  not  far  from  Libby 
Prison.  He  recognized  a  war  corre- 
76 


TAD  AND  HIS  FATHER 

spondent  whom  he  saw  standing  on  the 
shore,  and  called  to  know  if  the  reporter 
could  direct  them  to  the  headquarters 
of  General  Weitzel.  Receiving  an 
affirmative  reply,  the  boat  was  swept 
alongside  the  landing.  Out  stepped  six 
marines  armed  with  carbines ;  after 
them  came  the  President,  wearing  as 
usual  his  high  stovepipe  hat  and  his 
long  frock  coat,  and  Tad,  who  was  tightly 
clutching  his  father's  hand ;  then  the 
Admiral  and  the  other  officers,  and 
finally  six  more  blue-jacketted  marines. 
The  news  spread  like  wild  fire  all  over 
the  waterfront.  Half  a  hundred  negroes, 
who  were  earning  their  rations  by  build 
ing  a  canal  bridge  under  the  orders  of 
an  army  engineer,  ran  shouting  to  the 
landing.  From  the  little  side  streets 
77 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

poured   scores  of  women   and   children, 
their   white   eyeballs    rolling  in  wonder. 

"Hallelujah!  Bress  the  Lord  !"  they 
shouted.  "Massa  Linkum !  Massa 
Linkum !  Glory,  glory,  hallelujah!" 

They  burst  into  camp-meeting  re 
frains  ;  they  laughed  like  lunatics ;  they 
embraced  each  other,  and  leaped  up 
and  doWn,  and  swung  their  straw  hats 
and  turbans.  They  had  lived  to  see 
the  man  who  had  made  them  free,  and 
they  surged  about  their  deliverer  in  a 
frenzy  of  joy.  There  were  some,  too, 
who  regarded  him  with  silent,  stupefied 
wonder.  The  streets  became  almost 
impassable  as  the  President's  party 
mounted  toward  Capitol  Square.  Fi 
nally  they  halted,  and  a  cavalry  soldier 
was  sent  for  a  larger  escort. 
78 


TAD  AND  HIS  FATHER 

At  the  base  of  Capitol  Hill  an  aged 
negro,  decrepit  in  person  and  dilapidated 
in  dress,  lifted  his  battered  straw  hat, 
baring  a  snow-white  head,  and  fell 
upon  his  knees  in  the  road.  "May 
the  good  Lord  keep  you  safe,  Massa 
Linkum,"  he  said.  The  President  re 
garded  the  old  man  gravely,  and  then 
lifted  his  own  hat  and  bowed,  while 
the  excited  crowd  gaped  in  wonder. 
The  emancipator  had  taken  off  his  hat 
to  a  former  slave !  Women  in  bright 
turbans  which  looked  like  enormous 
tulips  invoked  the  blessings  of  heaven 
upon  "Massa  Linkum's  little  boy." 
Never  had  the  President's  face  worn 
a  sadder  smile.  The  bluecoats  about 
him  saw  the  gleam  of  tears  in  his  eyes. 

The  tramp  was  resumed,  and  the 
79 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

green  of  the  restful  square  was  traversed. 
The  linden  trees  were  fragrant,  and  the 
squirrels  were  playing  about  the  grass. 
Over  the  way  was  St.  Paul's  Church, 
where  two  days  before  the  sexton  had 
tiptoed  up  the  aisle  to  hand  the  President 
of  the  Confederacy  his  summons.  There 
was  the  Department  Building,  before 
which  the  government  papers  had  been 
burned.  The  homely  man  from  the 
North  looked  at  the  Capitol  with  its 
white  Doric  columns  and  glanced  up  at 
the  stars  and  stripes  which  had  replaced 
the  stars  and  bars  at  last.  Before  the 
speaker's  chair  in  the  room  which  had 
been  the  Virginia  Hall  of  Delegates, 
Stonewall  Jackson  had  lain  in  state 
two  years  before. 

The    party    went    to    Shockoe    Hill, 
80 


TAD  AND  HIS  FATHER 

where,  in  the  house  with  tall,  white 
pillars  and  long  windows  which  had 
been  the  executive  mansion  of  the 
Southern  States,  General  Weitzel  had 
made  his  headquarters.  The  President 
climbed  the  steps  and  dropped  into  a 
chair  in  one  of  the  rooms,  and  it  happened 
to  be  the  very  chair  which  had  been 
used  at  his  writing-desk  by  Jefferson 
Davis.  Tad  was  still  at  his  father's 
side. 

That  afternoon,  in  an  ambulance  with 
Tad  upon  his  knee  and  a  cavalry  escort 
clattering  behind,  President  Lincoln  rode 
down  Grace  Street  and  over  a  section 
of  the  city.  The  night  was  spent  aboard 
the  Malvern.  But  the  next  morning  the 
father  and  the  boy  again  came  ashore 
in  the  barge  and  spent  several  hours 
81 


TAD  AND  HIS  FATHER 

looking  upon  the  desolation  of  the  cap 
tured  citadel.  The  President  saw  the 
hospitals  where  wounded  and  dying 
soldiers  had  been  cared  for  by  the  brave 
women  of  the  Confederacy,  the  sewing- 
rooms  where  those  women  had  made 
uniforms  and  scraped  lint,  and  the  pris 
ons  where  captive  Federals  had  suf 
fered  and  languished.  He  stopped  long 
before  the  bronze  equestrian  statue  of 
Washington,  with  Jefferson  and  Mar 
shall  and  other  Virginians  about  him. 
He  gazed  at  the  red  brick  houses,  the 
ironwork  balconies,  and  the  walls  covered 
with  vines  shutting  in  the  pretty  gar 
dens.  He  looked  across  from  the  hills, 
whence  the  people  had  watched  the 
little  red  battle  flags  and  the  toy  shells 
bursting  in  tiny  puffs  of  smoke  in  the 
82 


TAD  AND  HIS  FATHER 

far  distance  during  the  Seven  Days' 
Battles.  At  the  Confederate  mansion 
they  told  him  that  from  the  garden  the 
campfires  of  two  armies  were  seen  night 
after  night,  for  almost  a  year,  and  their 
bugles  heard. 

It  was  beautiful,  this  city  of  seven 
hills,  he  thought,  and  he  fell  into  a 
revery  over  the  guns  that  had  rumbled 
over  these  cobbles  and  the  drums  that 
had  beaten  funeral  marches  for  four 
long  years.  For  four  years  he  had  suf 
fered  with  the  South,  and  he  was  suffer 
ing  with  the  South  now.  The  lines 
upon  his  face  were  deep,  very  deep,  and 
his  countenance  was  very  pale.  The 
negroes  hurrahed  for  him ;  they  ran 
with  their  pickaninnies  that  the  children 
might  see  him ;  they  pointed  out  little 
83 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

Tad  to  their  boys  and  called  down 
blessings  upon  them  both.  He  saluted 
them  sometimes,  but  his  smiles  were 
few.  The  men  riding  with  him  unobtru 
sively  watched  him,  and  none  of  them 
ever  forgot  the  dignity  and  pathos  of 
his  bearing.  One  of  his  smiles  brought 
healing  to  the  heart  of  the  young  wife 
of  the  soldier  who  had  led  the  great 
charge  at  Gettysburg,  and  Tad  was 
delighted  to  see  a  plump  baby  reach 
from  the  arms  of  Mrs.  Pickett  and 
kiss  his  father.  At  last  the  President 
said:  "Tad,  I  can't  stand  any  more; 
we'll  go  home." 

A  tug  towed  the  barge  back  to  City 
Point. 


84 


IV 

TWO  days  after  their  return,  Tad 
and  his  father  were  once  more 
together  before  the  public.  Back  in 
the  White  House,  Tad  let  loose  again 
all  his  abounding  energies.  Upon  the 
second  night  at  home  the  mansion  was 
illuminated,  and  all  Washington  was 
full  of  jubilation.  The  war  was  over; 
Petersburg  and  Richmond  were  taken ; 
the  news  of  the  surrender  of  Lee  was 
upon  everybody's  lips.  Thousands  of 
persons  tramped  out  Pennsylvania 
Avenue  to  the  home  of  the  President 
to  cheer  "Father  Abraham."  Brass 
bands  marched  to  the  mansion,  playing 
85 


TAD  AND  HIS  FATHER 

not  only  "John  Brown"  but  "Dixie" 
and  "Maryland,  My  Maryland."  Fire 
works  were  set  off  upon  the  lawns. 
From  the  Navy  Yard  a  small  battery 
was  dragged  to  the  residence,  and 
salutes  were  fired  every  few  minutes. 
Suddenly  the  din  doubled.  There 
were  tremendous  cheers  and  roars  of 
laughter.  The  multitude  were  almost 
in  a  frenzy  over  a  Confederate  flag  which 
a  small  boy,  in  the  uniform  of  a  lieutenant 
of  United  States  Volunteers,  was  waving 
frantically  from  a  second-story  window. 
It  was  Tad,  of  course,  and  how  the  crowd 
did  enjoy  his  prank !  Poor  old  Edward, 
his  dignity  outraged  by  the  breach  of 
decorum,  was  scandalized.  He  tried 
desperately  to  drag  the  little  chap  away 
from  the  window  and  to  confiscate  the 
86 


TAD  AND   HIS  FATHER 

banner.  "A  rebel  flag  from  the  win 
dows  of  the  White  House  !  Tad,  Tad  !" 
Outside  the  people  shouted  in  sheer 
happiness  over  the  scene.  The  boy 
fought  the  butler  energetically  for  a 
time,  then  suddenly  dropped  the  flag 
and  turned  just  at  the  right  instant 
to  bolt  into  his  father's  arms. 

The  moment  the  President  was  seen, 
a  roar  that  almost  shook  the  building 
burst  from  the  throng.  Quietly  stoop 
ing  forward  a  little,  he  looked  out  upon 
the  people.  His  face  was  beaming. 
The  lines  of  care  seemed  almost  smoothed 
away.  He  was  happy  and  content. 
These  were  his  friends.  Many  of  them 
had  seen  him  day  after  day  in  the  avenues 
of  Washington.  They  had  come  to  his 
home  to  cheer  him,  but  their  cheers 
87 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

were  for  their  common  country,  for 
their  flag,  not  one  of  whose  stars  was  to 
be  lost ;  their  resounding  hurrahs  were 
a  spontaneous  outburst  of  enthusiasm, 
significant  of  the  loyalty  and  devotion 
which  had  fought  the  awful  war  through 
to  the  end.  He  was  not  any  more  to 
hear  the  volleys  of  the  firing  squads 
shooting  deserters ;  no  more  would  the 
long  lines  of  stretchers  bear  the  wounded 
to  the  hospitals,  nor  the  muffled  drums 
throb  the  requiems  of  the  dead.  The 
war  was  over.  He  had  "fondly  hoped " 
and  "devoutly  prayed",  and  "the 
scourge  of  war"  had  "passed  away." 
If  only  some  artist  might  have  painted 
him  then  as  he  brooded  tenderly  upon 
that  spectacle  !  He  began  to  speak  : 
"We  meet  this  evening,  not  in  sorrow, 
88 


TAD  AND  HIS  FATHER 

but  in  gladness  of  heart.  The  evacua 
tion  of  Petersburg  and  Richmond,  and 
the  surrender  of  the  principal  army, 
give  hope  of  a  righteous  and  speedy 
peace,  whose  joyous  expression  can  not 
be  restrained.  In  the  midst  of  this, 
however,  He  from  whom  all  blessings 
flow  must  not  be  forgotten." 

A  profound  silence  fell  upon  the  crowd. 
Their  heartbeats  could  almost  be  heard. 
They  scarcely  breathed.  Every  one 
was  intent  to  hear  the  message  which 
their  President  was  bringing  them. 
And  there  in  the  midst  of  the  throng, 
their  brains  teeming  with  murderous 
plots,  were  Lewis  Payne  and  John 
Wilkes  Booth  ! 

The  address  was  written,  and  the 
candles  had  not  been  placed  high  enough 
89 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

for  the  towering  speaker  to  see  the 
sheets  well.  He  took  a  candle  in  his 
hand  and  read  on,  but,  coming  to  the 
end  of  a  page,  he  availed  himself  of  the 
services  of  a  guest,  who  stood  behind 
him  and  held  the  light  until  the  end  of 
the  little  speech  was  reached.  As  the 
President  finished  reading  each  page,  he 
let  the  manuscript  fall  sheet  by  sheet 
upon  the  floor,  and  Tad,  who  had  made 
a  trip  to  the  dining-room  with  satis 
factory  results,  came  back  just  in  time 
to  pursue  the  fluttering  leaves  as  they 
dropped  from  his  father's  hand.  In 
full  view  of  the  crowd,  he  crept  about 
his  father's  feet  on  hands  and  knees, 
and  if  the  interval  between  sheets  seemed 
long,  he  would  lift  his  ardent  face  as  if 
asking  for  more.  It  was  an  unforget- 
90 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

able  picture :  a  vast  sea  of  faces  over 
which  the  light  of  the  torches  played, 
all  gazing  at  the  tall  figure  of  the  Presi 
dent  ;  the  emancipator  reading  his  last 
address  to  the  people,  and  occasionally 
lifting  his  foot  in  a  queer,  admonitory 
way  to  warn  Tad  that  he  must  not 
interrupt  the  reading.  Who  shall  say 
that  as  Lincoln  read  his  remarks  on 
reconstruction,  he  was  not  thinking  also 
of  the  lad  who  had  been  the  apple  of  his 
eye  and  the  solace  of  his  heart  during 
the  dreary  years  of  civil  strife  ? 


ON  the  morning  of  April  14,  General 
Grant  arrived  in  Washington,  and 
with  him  was  Captain  Robert  Lincoln. 
Late  in  the  afternoon,  the  Secretary  of 
War  called  at  the  White  House  and 
had  a  talk  with  the  President.  After 
ward  with  Mrs.  Lincoln  he  took  a  drive, 
and  Tad,  for  once,  was  left  behind. 
They  talked  of  the  future,  and  Mrs. 
Lincoln  remarked  that  she  had  not  seen 
her  husband  so  cheerful  since  the  death 
of  their  second  son,  Willie. 

That    night    Washington    went    on    a 
lark.     The  night  was  flooded  with  moon 
light,  but  the  houses  were  lighted  from 
92 


TAD  AND  HIS  FATHER 

cellar  to  attic.  Business  houses,  gov 
ernment  buildings,  and  private  resi 
dences  were  gorgeously  decorated  with 
flags  and  bunting.  The  theatres  were 
a  mass  of  bright  colors,  and  flaming 
announcements  were  posted  to  attract 
the  crowds  who  would  certainly  be  seek 
ing  amusement  on  that  festal  occasion. 
The  streets  were  filled  with  torchlight 
processions,  and  the  inspiring  strains 
of  martial  music  were  heard  in  every 
square. 

Both  the  leading  playhouses  had  sent 
invitations  to  the  President  to  occupy 
that  night  the  box  always  reserved  for 
him,  and  to  C.  Dwight  Hess,  the  acting 
manager  of  Grover's,  Mrs.  Lincoln  wrote 
in  reply  that  the  President  already  had 
accepted  an  invitation  to  Ford's,  but 
93 


TAD  AND   HIS   FATHER 

that  Tad  with  his  tutor  would  be  glad 
to  come  to  the  National. 

The  boy  and  his  escort  arrived  early, 
and,  after  a  little  visit  behind  the  scenes, 
the  boxes  now  having  been  all  sold, 
they  were  shown  to  seats  well  at  the 
front  of  the  house. 

So  it  happened  that  while  the  father 
was  witnessing  a  performance  of  "Our 
American  Cousin"  and  smiling  over  the 
drolleries  of  "Lord  Dundreary",  Tad 
was  enjoying  the  "great  Oriental  Specta 
cle  of  Aladdin,  or  the  Wonderful  Lamp  ", 
with  "magnificent  scenery,  wonderful 
mechanical  effects,  grand  ballets,  beau 
tiful  tableaus ",  and,  between  the  acts, 
a  patriotic  poem  composed  for  the  occa 
sion,  called  "The  Flag  of  Sumter." 

After  awhile  a  messenger  came  to 
94 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

Tad's  companion  and  whispered  some 
thing  to  him.  The  tutor  seemed  sur 
prised  and  bewildered,  but  he  turned 
to  the  boy  and  told  him  that  word  had 
been  brought  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  ill, 
and  that  perhaps  it  would  be  well  for 
them  to  return  to  the  White  House. 
As  soon  as  they  had  retired,  Mr.  Hess, 
with  a  very  white  face,  came  before  the 
curtain,  and  to  an  audience  that  sud 
denly,  as  by  the  electric  thrill  of  pre 
monition,  became  as  still  as  the  grave, 
he  made  his  terrible  announcement. 
As  if  they  were  afraid  to  breathe,  the 
people  walked  past  the  soldiers  now  on 
guard  at  the  doors  and  out  into  the 
moonlight. 

The    hoofs    of    cavalry    horses    soon 
came   pounding   over   the   cobblestones. 
95 


TAD  AND  HIS  FATHER 

The  lights  in  the  dwellings  were  all 
extinguished.  But  all  night  long  women 
huddled  together  in  groups  at  the  win 
dows  and  waited  and  wondered.  All 
night  long  rumors  flashed  over  the 
stricken  city  of  rebel  raids,  of  wholesale 
assassinations,  and  of  lootings  and  burn 
ings.  Blue-clad  sentinels  during  the 
whole  night  patrolled  the  streets,  through 
which  horsemen  dashed,  bearing  orders 
and  despatches.  An  enormous  throng 
stood  in  the  streets  about  the  house  to 
which  "Father  Abraham"  had  been 
carried.  All  night  long  couriers  bore 
bulletins  from  that  secretary  whom  the 
President  had  playfully  called  "  Mars", 
now  keeping  vigil  in  the  house  of  death 
in  Tenth  Street,  to  the  telegraph  office 
in  the  War  Department,  whence  the 
96 


TAD  AND   HIS   FATHER 

operators,  almost  speechless  with  grief, 
sent  them  to  New  York  to  be  distrib 
uted  over  the  country  and  the  world. 
And  in  the  morning  thousands  of  men, 
infuriated,  despairing  men,  tramped  to 
their  homes  and  told  the  dire  tidings 
to  the  waiting  women. 

At  the  White  House  door  Thomas 
Pendel,  who  had  been  a  member  of  the 
President's  bodyguard  and  now  was 
stationed  at  the  entrance  to  his  home, 
was  awaiting  the  return  of  the  theatre 
party.  Somehow  the  tidings  reached 
him.  No  one  knows  just  how  the 
story  was  wafted  over  Washington  that 
night.  The  horror  spread  and  all  in  an 
instant  seemed  to  blanket  the  joy  of 
the  people,  put  out  their  lights,  and 
silence  their  cheers.  Pendel  had  to 
97 


TAD  AND  HIS   FATHER 

notify  Secretary  John  Hay  and  Captain 
Robert  Lincoln,  and  they  hastened 
away  to  Tenth  Street. 

Scarcely  had  they  gone  ere  Pendel, 
quivering  with  apprehension,  had  to 
receive  Tad  and  his  tutor.  The  boy 
came  running  up  the  steps  and  through 
the  portico,  sobbing  as  if  his  heart 
would  break.  Into  the  arms  of  the 
agitated  doorkeeper  he  tumbled,  just 
as  a  thousand  times  he  had  dashed  into 
the  embrace  of  his  father,  crying:  "O 
Tom  Pen !  O  Tom  Pen !  They've 
killed  my  papa  day !  They've  killed 
my  papa  day !" 

As  tenderly  as  ever  his  father  might 

have  done,   Pendel,  who  was  almost  as 

tall  as  Lincoln,  carried  the  weeping  boy 

up-stairs.     He  laid  him  down  upon  his 

98 


TAD  AND  HIS  FATHER 

bed  in  the  room  across  the  hall  from  the 
workshop  where  the  Cabinet  consulta 
tions  had  been  held.  As  a  mother  would 
have  done,  he  took  off  the  lad's  shoes, 
loosened  his  clothing,  and  bathed  his 
face.  They  wept  together.  Tad's  lisp 
ing  syllables  shaped  themselves  intelli 
gibly  only  when  he  called  "Papa  day, 
Papa  day."  Pendel  stretched  out  be 
side  the  boy,  put  his  arms  about  him, 
and  soothed  him  patiently  until,  some 
time  after  midnight,  Tad  fell  asleep  and 
forgot  his  troubles  for  a  time. 

All  day  following,  the  rain  fell.  Men 
said  the  heavens  were  weeping.  In  an 
hour  the  capital  which  had  been  a  riot 
of  color  became  a  city  of  sepulchral 
black.  The  bells  which  had  clanged  in 
joy  now  tolled  doleful  dirges.  The  bands 
99 


TAD  AND   HIS   FATHER 

which  had  blared  "Dixie"  and  "Yankee 
Doodle"  now  played  a  solemn  dead 
march,  as  the  President  was  carried 
home  once  more.  The  black  people 
whom  he  had  liberated  crowded  about 
his  coffin.  Thousands  waited  in  line 
all  day  to  look  upon  his  face  as  he  lay 
in  state  in  the  executive  mansion  of  the 
nation. 

Secretary  Welles  and  Attorney-gen 
eral  James  Speed  came  through  the 
upper  hall  that  afternoon,  silent  and 
preoccupied  with  their  hopes  and  fears. 
The  boy  of  the  White  House  turned 
from  a  window  through  which  he  had 
been  looking  at  the  crowd  of  wailing 
colored  women  and  children  without, 
recognized  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy, 
and  burst  into  tears. 

100 


TAD  AND  HIS  FATHER 


"Oh,  Mr.  Welles/'  he  cried,  "who 
killed  my  papa  day,  and  why  did  he 
have  to  die  ?" 

The  grave  men  could  not  restrain 
their  emotion,  nor  could  they  answer 
Tad's  question.  They  could  only  try 
to  say  something  comforting  and  pass 
on,  leaving  disconsolate  the  boy  who 
had  been  so  great  a  comfort  to  his 
martyred  father. 

How  many  thousands  have  asked  your 
question  since  then,  Tad !  How  many, 
indeed!  "Why?"  Had  he  not  al 
ways  "plucked  a  thistle  and  planted  a 
flower  wherever  he  thought  a  flower 
would  grow?"  Was  he  not  a  man  of 
the  plain  people  who  never  forgot  his 
kind  ?  Did  not  the  whole  nation,  South 
101 


TAD  AND  HIS  FATHER 

as  well  as  North,  need  him  ?  Why 
might  he  not  have  had  a  little  of  the 
gladness  of  the  morning  after  the  purga 
torial  darkness  of  the  night  of  suffering  ? 
He  had  grown  old  so  frightfully  fast ; 
could  he  not  have  had  a  few  years  to 
grow  young  again  ?  How  can  either 
reason  or  conscience  include  the  death 
of  Lincoln  within  any  reasonable  ideal 
of  a  moral  universe  ?  Yes,  Tad,  your 
question  touches  upon  the  mysteries 
of  time  and  eternity.  It  involves  the 
problems  over  which  the  greatest  minds 
and  hearts  of  the  world  have  wrestled 
and  prayed.  But  when  you  went  away 
a  few  years  later  and  joined  your  father, 
then,  Tad,  I  think  —  although  I  cannot 
be  quite  sure  —  I  think  that  then  you 
found  an  answer. 

102 


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